Apologetics Part 3: Defending Our Faith

Once we understand who we are defending against (Part 1) and what it is we are defending (Part 2) we are in a position to do some actual defending.

I mentioned Ephesians 6:12 earlier which says,

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

Paul goes on in the very next verse to explain the full armor of God, which is armor designed to engage Satan in battle!

We are in a fight and we must know who the enemy is and where the battle lines are drawn. We must understand what our message is (the truth) as opposed to the message of our enemy (the lies).

How do we, then, defend our faith given all of this?

The answer is faith.

As Matthew Bates has pointed out the Greek word for faith (pistis) can mean something more like “allegiance” than just mere “belief.”

Faith draws up the battle lines. Faith is a declaration of which team/kingdom we are on/in. Through faith comes our salvation and that salvation is connected with the victory that Jesus had over Satan in His resurrection (1 Cor 15:54). If you read 1 Cor 15, you will see a lot of battle and victory language. Jesus was engaging the powers to fight for us. He was tying up the strong mean to enter and plunder his house (Mark 3:27). It is the “shield of faith” (Eph 6:16) that we use to extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. Again, we are in a war! It is the fight of our lives.

There is a big debate among scholars about “Faith in Christ” vs the “faithfulness of Christ”. Which are we saved by? I am not going to answer that here but I will say that the only reason we can win this battle is because Christ was faithful. It was the obedient Christ of Phil 2:5-11 who got exalted to the right hand of God and at who’s name every knee will bow and every tongue confess he is Lord/Master!